La transición a la política de masas en América Latina

El presente artículo estudia la transición a una política basada en las masas en América Latina como un modo de comenzar a abordar la falta de teorización sobre los casos no europeos de democratización y democracia anteriores a 1974. El mismo ofrece un m

Trazendo de volta a mensuração: fundamentos metodológicos do índice de democracia eleitoral

Resumo A medição dos principais conceitos utilizados no estudo da política tem um grande impacto no nosso conhecimento sobre ela. Afeta a nossa forma de descrever o mundo (e, portanto, as questões que parecem importantes para o estudo) e as proposições causais que consideramos válidas. Ainda mais importante, afeta o tipo de conselho que cientistas políticos podem oferecer sobre os principais temas de política pública e as questões políticas do dia. No entanto, é notável a pouca atenção é dada para a geração de dados e a metodologia de medição. Na verdade, é justo dizer que a visão dominante na ciência política é que a medição é uma tarefa necessária que deve ser rapidamente transcendida ou, se possível completamente ignorada, de modo que as energias dos pesquisadores se concentrem em uma tarefa vista como muito mais importante: o teste de hipóteses causais. A falha em reconhecer a importância da geração de dados e a metodologia da medição, e a propensão a tomar atalhos, tem custos graves. Em poucas palavras, ela leva a ganhos ilusórios em conhecimento, que mais cedo ou mais tarde são questionados. Assim, é hora de que os cientistas políticos desconfiem da tendência de reivindicações prematuras de conhecimento, tão difundida na disciplina, e coloquem mais ênfase na medição de conceitos-chave como uma base de conhecimento, isto é, como uma tarefa que afeta o possibilidade de fornecer análise descritiva e/ou causal sólida e, em última análise, de oferecer conselhos responsáveis. Palavras-chave: metodologia, índice de democracia   Abstract Measurement of the core concepts used in the study of politics has a great impact on our knowledge about politics. It affects the way we describe the world”” and hence the questions that seem important to study””and the causal propositions we consider to be valid. Even more importantly, it affects the kind of advice political scientists offer on the key political and public policy issues of the day. Yet it is remarkable how little attention is given to the generation of data and the methodology of measurement. Indeed, it is fair to say that the mainstream view in political science is that measurement is a necessary task that should be quickly transcended or, if at all possible altogether skipped, so that researchers ’ energies can focus on a task seen as much more important: the testing of causal hypotheses. The failure to acknowledge the importance of data generation and the methodology of measurement, and the propensity to take shortcuts, has severe costs. In a nutshell, it is associated with illusionary gains in knowledge, which sooner or later are questioned. Thus, it is time that political scientists become more suspicious of the tendency toward premature knowledge claims that is so pervasive in the discipline and put more emphasis on the measurement of key concepts as a foundation of knowledge, that is, as a task that affects the possibility of providing sound descriptive and/or causal analysis and, ultimately, of offering responsible advice. Keywords: methodology, democracy inde

Choosing an Adequate Pesticide Delivery System for Managing Pathogens with Difficult Biologies: Case Studies on <em>Diplodia corticola, Venturia inaequalis</em> and <em>Erwinia amylovora</em>

With the challenges that negatively impact tree-based agriculture, landscapes and forests, such as climate change, plant pathogen and insect range expansion, invasive species and limited new pesticides, it is important to introduce new and effective tree protection options. In the last 20 years, pathogens that invade wood i.e. vascular tissues of trees causing wilt, yellowing, premature defoliation, cankers and tree death, have been on the rise. Diplodia corticola causes Bot canker of oak species which can kill trees diminishing the valuable ecological services they provide and reducing profits from wood and cork production. Since this and similar pathogens have difficult biologies because they reside in wood and cause severe internal damage and tree death, their management is difficult or inefficient with classical pesticide application methods that cannot reach and distribute the active ingredient in vascular wood tissues. As practical management options for this and other vascular tissue pathogens of trees are limited, we evaluated efficacy of several trunk injected fungicides in control of D. corticola and compared it with the efficacy of trunk injection of similar compounds for control of Venturia inaequalis and Erwinia amylovora, as two well-studied apple tree pathogens with different or partially similar lifestyles to D. corticola, respectively

Spherical harmonic decomposition applied to spatial-temporal analysis of human high-density EEG

We demonstrate an application of spherical harmonic decomposition to analysis of the human electroencephalogram (EEG). We implement two methods and discuss issues specific to analysis of hemispherical, irregularly sampled data. Performance of the methods and spatial sampling requirements are quantified using simulated data. The analysis is applied to experimental EEG data, confirming earlier reports of an approximate frequency-wavenumber relationship in some bands.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. E, uses APS RevTeX style

The time of the Roma in times of crisis: Where has European neoliberal capitalism failed?

This paper argues that the economic and financial crisis that has ensnared Europe from the late 2000s has been instrumental in reshaping employment and social relations in a detrimental way for the majority of the European people. It argues that the crisis has exacerbated the socio-economic position of most Roma people, immigrants as well as of other vulnerable groups. This development is approached here as an outcome of the widening structural inequalities that underpin the crisis within an increasingly neoliberalised Europe. Through recent policy developments and public discourses from a number of European countries I show how rising inequalities nurture racialised social tensions. My account draws on classic and contemporary theoretical propositions that have been propounded about the nature of capitalism, its contemporary re-articulation as well as its ramification for the future of Europe

Correlation between Pathologic Complete Response in the Breast and Absence of Axillary Lymph Node Metastases after Neoadjuvant Systemic Therapy

Objective:The aim was to investigate whether pathologic complete response (PCR) in the breast is correlated with absence of axillary lymph node metastases at final pathology (ypN0) in patients treated with neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) for different breast cancer subtypes.Background:Pathologic complete response rates have improved on account of more effective systemic treatment regimens. Promising results in feasibility trials with percutaneous image-guided tissue sampling for the identification of breast PCR after NST raise the question whether breast surgery is a redundant procedure. Thereby, the need for axillary surgery should be reconsidered as well.Methods:Patients diagnosed with cT1-3N0-1 breast cancer and treated with NST, followed by surgery between 2010 and 2016, were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry. Patients were compared according to the pa